Duncan Clark Poop 05

Buy new or used through Amazon1.RYAN ADAMS – Cold Roses
Hyperactivity is not necessarily a bad thing. Channel-ing the Dead’s American Beauty gave him his strongest album in a short but very busy career. 29 and Jacksonville City Nights were almost as good.

Buy new or used through AmazonLOS LOBOS – Live at the Fillmore
Last year was an exceptional year for live albums. There haven’t been this many albums recorded at the Fillmore since Bill Graham closed the place more than 30 years ago. These are good sets from two of the best live acts that I’ve seen in the last 15 years.

Buy new or used through Amazon11. OASIS – Don’t Belive the Truth
Their best since Wonderwall. Ofcourse they lessen the achievement by throwing in a live bonus cd from 11 years ago just to remind you exactly how much promise this band once had.

Buy new or used through Amazon12.RY COODER – Chavez Ravine
In his other world music travels to India and Cuba, he occasionally sounded like a tourist. He is much more at home here in the LA of the 1940’s and 50’s.

Buy new or used through Amazon15.THE BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA – Atom Bomb
They are beginning to drop like flies. Nice mixture of straight gospel and covers of more recent material as they’ve been doing on the last couple of albums.

16.WILCO – Kicking Television – Live in Chicago
Proving that regardless of how experimental the group can be in the studio, at it’s heart is a hell of a rock band.

17.SLEATER-KINNEY – The Woods
In which they find a grunge pedal and turn the volume up to 11.

18.SON VOLT – Okemah and the Melody of Riot
A tougher sound than in the past. Is Crazy Horse moonlighting while Neil works out some issues?

19.TEENAGE FANCLUB – Man-Made
Despite having a much higher profile in the 90’s, Teenage Fanclub has continued to make great guitar pop albums fully grounded in the Byrds and Big Star.

20.KATE BUSH – Aerial
It’s like listening to a time capsule from the 80’s. Her world does not extend beyond sunsets and the most current reference is to Elvis P. Totally unique.

21.JOHN TAMS – The Reckoning
Third album in five years after more than a decade away from the studio. There’s a bit more reliance on traditional material this time around but the performances are still strong.

25.PURPLE WIZARD – Purple Wizard
The old guy is kind of creepy but for the most part this consists of well chosen garage-girl group- r&b- brit invasion covers.

REISSUES

1.ARETHA FRANKLIN & KING CURTIS – Live at the Fillmore West
Don’t Fight the Feeling

2.GRATEFUL DEAD – Fillmore West 1969 – The Complete Recordings See #8 above. Combined, they represent one hell of a week at the Fillmore. If you’re looking for peaks in the history of soul music, one of the candidates has to be Aretha, King Curtis and Brother Ray on “Spirit in the Dark”. As for the Dead, their best work was a couple of years down the line but the album culled from these shows defined the band in concert for the rest of their career.

3.VARIOUS ARTISTS – One Kiss can Lead to Another : Girl Group Sounds, Lost & Found
Chick mcnuggets.

4.THE BAND – A Musical History
I swear this will be the absolute last anthology or box set from the Band that I’m ever going to get. Thankfully, I think it’s difficult to get any more definitive than this.

5.SPIRIT – Model Shop
One of those bands that I didn’t really appreciate until 20 years later. Randy California was a very underrated guitarist.

6.MC 5 – Purity Accuracy
Speaking of definitive, this 6 cd box set of rehearsals, outtakes and concerts should close the book on what was one of the hardest hitting groups ever.

7.BOB DYLAN – No Direction Home
I prefer the more focused volumes of the Bootleg series to this hodgepodge but the video was exceptional.

8.VARIOUS ARTISTS – Children of Nuggets
Neither as comprehensive nor riveting as it’s forefathers but it’s a good collection of music on the fringe that kept me sane while commercial music sank into mediocrity.